Outrage: Republican U.S. Senate candidate Richard Mourdock from Indiana set off a political firestorm Tuesday after he said that when a woman is impregnated during a rape it's 'something God intended'

He’s been vehemently criticised by Democrats and the Obama administration, but Indiana Republican senate hopeful Richard Mourdock is not backing down.

Speaking to reporters in Crawfordsville, Indiana after a luncheon speech, he said he knew he gained voter support from his controversial stance on rape and abortion.

Yesterday, he refused to apologize for saying that when pregnancy results from rape, then that is ‘something God intended.’

The Democratic Senetorial Campaign Committee has invested $1.1million to run a negative campaign against him.

Mourdock told reporters following the fundraising luncheon that he knew that his campaign gained support from his comments.

National Republican officials said Thursday they were moving past the uproar over his comments that a pregnancy resulting from rape is God's will and refocusing the nation's political conversation on the presidential and congressional elections less than two weeks off.

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Indiana Republican Senate candidate Richard Mourdock pictured Wednesday; he said today that his comment likely won him supporters

But even as they tried to recover,
Senate Democrats dropped $1.1 million on an ad keeping the spectacle
alive and linking Mourdock's comments to Republican presidential hopeful
Mitt Romney.

'God intended that a woman be raped
and become pregnant? Even Mitt Romney and (gubernatorial hopeful) Mike
Pence believe Richard Mourdock goes too far,' the narrator says in the
statewide spot, which began running Thursday night- 48 hours after
Mourdock made the remark in a debate. Democrats said it would continue
running over Indiana's airwaves through the Nov. 6 election.

Mourdock spokesman Brose McVey called the ad 'sleazy.'

'Now Donnelly and his liberal
Washington allies are attacking Richard Mourdock's faith and beliefs,'
McVey said, adding the ad violates an agreement signed by the campaigns
not to use footage from the debates, but the Democratic Senatorial
Campaign Committee in Washington never signed that pledge.

The blistering speed with which
national Democrats produced and aired the spot was a swift shove against
a series of stubborn, stalemated contests, from the presidential race
to the battle for control of the Senate and the Indiana race in
particular.

The state's open Senate seat is a
must-win if Republicans are to gain the four seats they need to win
control of the Senate if President Barack Obama wins reelection, three
seats if Romney prevails.

The ad's subject matter-rape,
abortion, and God- illustrated the overarching importance of one group
of voters critical to every locked contest: Women voters. In Indiana,
the pool of undecided voters is more than 60 percent women.

Obama and his Democratic allies have
battled all year for the trust of female voters, with Democrats charging
that Republicans were waging a 'war against women' and Republicans
insisting that their economic plans offered more to this critical bloc
that suffered from the recession more than men.

Hot water: Mourdock (pictured right) made the remarks toward the end of a debate with Democratic challenger Rep. Joe Donnelly (center) and Libertarian Andrew Horning (left)

Demanding apology: Sen John McCain, the Republican presidential nominee in 2008, said his support hinged on Mourdock disavowing the remark

'I spoke from my heart. And speaking from my heart, speaking from the
deepest level of my faith, I would not apologize. I would be less than
faithful if I said anything other than life is precious, I believe it's a
gift from God,' Mourdock said at a news conference Wednesday.

State
Republicans and a few congressional leaders defended Mourdock, whose
prospects of winning the seat long held by the GOP are unclear.

But already, some in his own party are jumping ship.

Before
Mourdock's refusal to apologize, Sen John McCain, the Republican
presidential nominee in 2008, told CNN's Anderson Cooper that he would
withdraw his support unless Mourdock said he misspoke and asked voters
for forgiveness.

With female
voters critical in the tight presidential race and other stalemated
contests two weeks before Election Day, many in the party distanced
themselves with varying levels of abruptness and clarity, underscoring
the difficult nature of the uproar even among other anti-abortion
Republicans.

Indiana
gubernatorial candidate Mike Pence sought an apology from Murdock.
Indiana House candidate Jackie Walorski, meanwhile, issued three
statements Wednesday: two disagreeing with Mourdock and one suggesting
that Republicans get back to talking about President Barack Obama's
health care overhaul.

That didn't happen Wednesday as the
issue ricocheted around the nation's political landscape, from the
presidential contest on down.

Response: Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney immediately distanced himself from Mourdock's comments Tuesday through a statement from his spokesman

Romney (pictured left) has endorsed Mourdock (pictured right) in his race for a U.S. Senate seat in Indiana

On 'The Tonight Show,' President Obama
told Jay Leno: 'Well, I don't know how these guys come up with these
ideas," Obama said. "Let me make a very simple proposition. Rape is
rape. It is a crime. And so these various distinctions about rape don't
make too much sense to me - don't make any sense to me.'

Obama
added: 'This is exactly why you don't want a bunch of politicians,
mostly male, making decisions about women's health care decisions. Women
are capable of making these decisions in consultation with their
partners, with their doctors. And for politicians to want to intrude in
this stuff, oftentimes without any information, is a huge problem. And
this is obviously part of what's stake at this election.'

Mourdock,
meanwhile, dove into damage control Wednesday, explaining that he
abhors violence of any kind and regrets that some may have misconstrued
and 'twisted' his comments. But he stood behind the original remark in
Tuesday night's debate.

'Gov.
Romney disagrees with Richard Mourdock's comments, and they do not
reflect his views,' said Andrea Saul, Romney's spokeswoman.

Romney is featured endorsing Mourdock in a television ad released Monday, the day before the debate.

'Richard will help stop the liberal
Reid-Pelosi agenda,' Romney says in the ad, referring to the Democratic
leaders of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. 'With so much
at stake, I hope you’ll join me in supporting Richard Mourdock for U.S.
Senate.'